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In a London neighbourhood teeming with kids and strollers, neighbours gather around barbecues to celebrate May 2-4. But one solitary child is just a witness to the fun, gazing down from an upstairs window.

The child waves and seems to smile. That’s how it looked at the time.

But nothing looks the same now in the neighbourhood in the city’s southeast, where authorities believe a 10-year-old boy was confined for up to two years in a bedroom and found in filthy conditions, his pyjamas and bedding soaked in urine, before being taken into the care of a children’s aid society.

“The kid waved. I thought (the kid) was happy,” said a next-door neighbour.

Under Ontario’s child-welfare law, the boy’s address and other identifying information cannot be published.

Friday, as the story spread nationwide, neighbours were taken aback.

Across the street, a young woman smiled at her toddler, then looked back at the house.

“How many times did I walk by the house? Was the kid looking out the window looking for help? It breaks my heart,” she said.

In a neighbourhood whose homes were built less than a decade ago, neighbours say the family moved in five years ago but had done little to interact with others or keep up the house: High weeds cover the front yard and a sink abandoned in the back yard by a previous owner is still in the same spot.

The entryway is neat and framed photos line the wall along the stairway that leads to the second floor.

But in the back, the kitchen is covered almost knee-deep with half-filled food containers, dirty dishes and small, grocery-sized garbage bags.

The couple that lived there ran a variety store, than another, the latter closing a year or two ago, say neighbours who saw them working.

When leaving or returning home, the husband would say “hi” if he drove past neighbours. But other than that, the family was mostly invisible.

One neighbour said he offered to help with a chore outside but was turned aside by the husband.

But while neighbours were annoyed by the yard and distant from the family, no one suspected anything untoward.